SALINE CO.— An incident on West Raymond Street in Harrisburg had curious neighbors contacting Disclosure asking what was going on with all the police activity.
As it turns out, a domestic situation lead to a husband stealing his wife’s car which was later found to have more than a little drug activity going on inside once officers tracked it down.
The saga began to unfold March 15 at 11:38 a.m. when Randi Hall contacted authorities and reported her car had been stolen.
Hall said she had stopped by her friend Alberta Harrelson’s house on West Raymond Street near the baseball field.
She said she had left her keys in the car because she only intended to be there for a short time, but when she came out her red 2004 Pontiac Grand Am was gone.
Harrisburg Sgt. Michael Riden responded and asked if she had any idea who might have taken her car.
Hall said she was married to Jackie Hall, they had been having problems and she was trying to get away from him.
She also said that her husband might have an active warrant out for his arrest.
Mrs. Hall told Riden that he may want to check for her car at a residence on Main Street in Carrier Mills.
At approximately 12:30 p.m. Riden spotted the vehicle, with three suspects inside, eastbound on Legion Road in Carrier Mills.
Once he had the vehicle stopped Riden asked the two males in the front if either of them were Jackie Hall and they both said no.
A female seated in the rear of the vehicle said nothing.
The driver identified himself as Michael Gene Harrelson, 34, of North Thompson St., Carrier Mills.
Oh, THAT Jackie Hall!
When Riden walked around to the front passenger side of the car, the man in the passenger’s seat admitted he was indeed Jackie Hall.
That was about the time Riden grabbed a hold of Hall’s wrist and assisted him out of the vehicle and onto his stomach.
Subsequent to his arrest, Riden found Hall to be in possession of a plastic bag containing a green leafy substance.
Hall was secured in Riden’s cruiser.
When Harrelson exited the car, Riden spotted a small glass jar in the driver’s seat.
“Inside the jar I observed what appeared to be a plastic bag,” Riden said. “One was empty and the other contained a hard rock-like crystal substance which I suspected was methamphetamine.”
When he was searched, Harrelson was found to posses a set of digital scales in his right front pocket.
The scales happened to have a white powdery substance on them.
That was about the time Harrelson was secured in the rear of a waiting police cruiser.
The passenger in the rear of the car was identified as Danielle D. Graves, 25, of Ferrell Road, Stonefort.
When Ms. Graves exited the vehicle, officers found a small plastic bag containing meth.
There was also a glass drug pipe hidden under a towel.
And that’s about the time Graves was handcuffed and placed in a squad car.
Lengthy history of meth
Harrelson earned his first felony on July 13, 2000 when he was convicted of Aggravated DUI Causing Great Bodily Harm for which he was sentenced to two years probation.
His second felony was earned in 2001 when he was convicted of Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine, for which he was sentenced to another two years probation.
Harrelson was sentenced to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) in 2003 after he was convicted of Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Chemicals.
Apparently taking too much of his own product, the meth-addled Harrelson was sentenced to another 10 years in IDOC in 2006 after he was convicted of Unlawful Methamphetamine Manufacturing.
Michael Gene was back on the streets in 2012 long enough to earn yet another felony for Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine.
This time he was sentenced to two years probation.
Graves and Hall appear to have little or no criminal record in Saline County.
All three were taken into custody and charged with drug offenses.